This book, written by two well-known specialists in the history of Christian liturgy and intended for graduate programmes in theology, offers a very readable and up-to-date history of the Christian eucharist, both the ritual and its theology. Like other recent monographs on the same topic, it follows the various phases of its historical development. Chapters i and ii, which deal with the much debated issue of the origins of Christian liturgies and their development in the first three centuries, portray well the approaches and tendencies that are typical of recent research in this field (in which the two authors have played a prominent and sometimes pioneering role): (a) strong emphasis upon the role played by the meal customs of the Greco-Roman world; (b) caution with regard to theories claiming a direct dependency of early Christian eucharists on Jewish meal practices; (c) rejection of reconstructions of single apostolic archetypical models based upon the biblical accounts of the Last Supper (in particular that of Gregory Dix); (d) rejection of theories assuming the existence of clear-cut distinctions between the eucharist and the agape-meal; (e) emphasis on the great variety of prayer texts that cannot be traced back to one common root. While basically agreeing with these principles, I have reservations about their accounts of some aspects of the earliest phases of the eucharist that are built upon analyses of the New Testament institution narratives (pp. 22–3). Chapter iii provides an insightful sketch of the changes that the eucharist liturgy underwent in the fourth and fifth centuries and contains an abundance of texts of important anaphoras in English translation. Chapter iv explores more deeply important theological topics connected with the ritual changes described in chapter iii (origins of the Sanctus; insertion of the institution narrative into the anaphora; development of the Spirit-epiclesis and the notion of sacrifice). Chapter v deals with the Christian East. Unlike similar chapters in other books on liturgical history, it is not limited to the Byzantine rite, but also contains quite detailed information about other Eastern rites and, moreover, provides the texts of several anaphoras in English translation. Compared to the chapters devoted to the early Church, chapter vi, which concerns the medieval West, is remarkably short. After a description of the Roman eighth-century papal mass, a picture is sketched of the major changes in this ritual after the Carolingian period: (decline of the) participation of the people; spiritual communion; private mass; focus on the moment of the consecration. Though mentioning the caveats voiced by historians like Eamon Duffy, the late Middle Ages are generally treated as a period of decline (as is quite common in publications by liturgical historians). Chapter vii deals with the Protestant and Catholic Reformations of the sixteenth century and elucidates the theological principles underlying these reforms in a remarkably clear and vivid way. The final chapter of this excellent monograph addresses the liturgical reforms carried out in the second half of the twentieth century in most Western liturgical traditions. In line with the rest of the book, due attention is paid both to the ritual and the theological dimensions.